diff --git a/common-test/src/main/java/org/apache/sqoop/common/test/categories/SlowTests.java b/common-test/src/main/java/org/apache/sqoop/common/test/categories/SlowTests.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f8ce4747
--- /dev/null
+++ b/common-test/src/main/java/org/apache/sqoop/common/test/categories/SlowTests.java
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+/**
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.sqoop.common.test.categories;
+
+/**
+ * Slow tests interface for JUnit categories.
+ * This should  be used if your unit tests rely on
+ * some piece of infrastructure that takes time to start.
+ * For example, using a MySQL database takes time to setup
+ * and start because it is in a separate process.
+ */
+public interface SlowTests {}
diff --git a/common/pom.xml b/common/pom.xml
index 04119f20..e8a8010e 100644
--- a/common/pom.xml
+++ b/common/pom.xml
@@ -32,6 +32,10 @@ limitations under the License.
   <name>Sqoop Common</name>
 
   <dependencies>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.apache.sqoop</groupId>
+      <artifactId>sqoop-common-test</artifactId>
+    </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.googlecode.json-simple</groupId>
       <artifactId>json-simple</artifactId>
diff --git a/connector/connector-kafka/src/test/java/org/apache/sqoop/connector/kafka/TestKafkaLoader.java b/connector/connector-kafka/src/test/java/org/apache/sqoop/connector/kafka/TestKafkaLoader.java
index f896e9e6..4ed027fa 100644
--- a/connector/connector-kafka/src/test/java/org/apache/sqoop/connector/kafka/TestKafkaLoader.java
+++ b/connector/connector-kafka/src/test/java/org/apache/sqoop/connector/kafka/TestKafkaLoader.java
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 package org.apache.sqoop.connector.kafka;
 
 import kafka.message.MessageAndMetadata;
+import org.apache.sqoop.common.test.categories.SlowTests;
 import org.apache.sqoop.connector.kafka.configuration.ToJobConfiguration;
 import org.apache.sqoop.connector.kafka.configuration.LinkConfiguration;
 import org.apache.sqoop.common.test.kafka.TestUtil;
@@ -27,11 +28,13 @@
 import org.junit.Assert;
 import org.junit.BeforeClass;
 import org.junit.Test;
+import org.junit.experimental.categories.Category;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.List;
 
+@Category({ SlowTests.class })
 public class TestKafkaLoader {
 
   private static TestUtil testUtil = TestUtil.getInstance();
diff --git a/docs/pom.xml b/docs/pom.xml
index 75f428c4..f8ccc344 100644
--- a/docs/pom.xml
+++ b/docs/pom.xml
@@ -31,6 +31,14 @@ limitations under the License.
   <artifactId>sqoop-docs</artifactId>
   <name>Sqoop Documentation</name>
 
+  <dependencies>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>junit</groupId>
+      <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
+      <scope>test</scope>
+    </dependency>
+  </dependencies>
+
 
   <reporting>
     <plugins>
diff --git a/docs/src/site/sphinx/BuildingSqoop2.rst b/docs/src/site/sphinx/BuildingSqoop2.rst
index ad07d460..35b22d4e 100644
--- a/docs/src/site/sphinx/BuildingSqoop2.rst
+++ b/docs/src/site/sphinx/BuildingSqoop2.rst
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ Maven target ``package`` can be used to create Sqoop packages similar to the one
 Running tests
 -------------
 
-Sqoop supports two different sets of tests. First smaller and much faster set is called unit tests and will be executed on maven target ``test``. Second larger set of integration tests will be executed on maven target ``integration-test``. Please note that integration tests might require manual steps for installing various JDBC drivers into your local maven cache.
+Sqoop supports two different sets of tests. First smaller and much faster set is called **unit tests** and will be executed on maven target ``test``. Second larger set of **integration tests** will be executed on maven target ``integration-test``. Please note that integration tests might require manual steps for installing various JDBC drivers into your local maven cache.
 
 Example for running unit tests:
 
@@ -67,3 +67,10 @@ Example for running integration tests:
 ::
 
   mvn integration-test
+
+For the **unit tests**, there are two helpful profiles: **fast** and **slow**. The **fast** unit tests do not start or use any services. The **slow** unit tests, may start services or use an external service (ie. MySQL).
+
+::
+
+  mvn test -Pfast,hadoop200
+  mvn test -Pslow,hadoop200
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index aa4231e9..afdeb75d 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -133,6 +133,37 @@ limitations under the License.
 
   <!-- Profiles for various supported Hadoop distributions -->
   <profiles>
+    <profile>
+      <id>fast</id>
+
+      <build>
+        <plugins>
+          <plugin>
+            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
+            <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
+            <configuration>
+              <excludedGroups>org.apache.sqoop.common.test.categories.SlowTests</excludedGroups>
+            </configuration>
+          </plugin>
+        </plugins>
+      </build>
+    </profile>
+
+    <profile>
+      <id>slow</id>
+
+      <build>
+        <plugins>
+          <plugin>
+            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
+            <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
+            <configuration>
+              <groups>org.apache.sqoop.common.test.categories.SlowTests</groups>
+            </configuration>
+          </plugin>
+        </plugins>
+      </build>
+    </profile>
 
     <!-- Hadoop 1.x -->
     <profile>
@@ -639,11 +670,10 @@ limitations under the License.
           <version>2.3.2</version>
         </plugin>
 
-
         <plugin>
           <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
           <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
-          <version>2.12</version>
+          <version>2.13</version>
           <configuration>
             <forkMode>always</forkMode>
             <forkedProcessTimeoutInSeconds>3600</forkedProcessTimeoutInSeconds>